There will always be an argument about where the whole “Digital Cumbia “ movement started. Did it arrive from German electronic composer Uwe Schmidt, (aka Señor Coconut) forays into tropical music that merge German electro-sensibilities with Latin American rhythms? Was it Toy Selectah’s production, mixing urban Hip-Hop with Sonidero that made Celso Piña’s massive hit, “Cumbia Sobre El Rio”? Was it British world travelers, Up Bustle & Out, whose journeys into Mexico led them to discover Sonidero, mixed with Reggae and Hip-Hop? Was it 2005 white label 12” release of Cumbia Mash-Ups made by Chico Sonido & Toy Selectah, mashing up Missy Elliot and Rick Ross acapellas with Cumbia Rebajada? One can argue it was ZZK’s landmark ZZK Sound Vol.1 Cumbia Digital, which received tons of international press which led every remixer who had an account of SoundCloud to add guacharaca on every insignificant remix they made.

In the end, it really doesn’t matter. What matters is what is good and what isn’t. All those names mention above has its place in the creation of Nu Cumbia, Electro-Cumbia, Digital Cumbia, Moombaton and every-related sub-genre that was created to describe a new sound that mixed the barrios of Latin America and it’s counterparts from academia and entitlement. In the end, barrio kids and the college kids created a baby and that’s what we have now.

Nothing more exemplifies this than ZZK’s latest release, The Future Sounds Of Buenos Aires. Besides defying what it means to be a Digital Cumbia artist in 2012 beyond creating dance floor jams, it is an example of the modern day Argentina. Argentina has been criticized as being the most European of all the Latin American countries, mainly for embracing the culture of their conqueror that other Latin American cultures are quick to dismiss it. When we think of the music of music of Argentina, we think of the Eurocentric Tango, or the thousands of Latin Rock groups that imitated the sounds of whatever was happening in Anglolandia, whether it was the Kinks and The Beatles in the 60’s, Led Zeppelin and Queen in the 70’s or The Police and Depeche Mode in the 80’s. It’s hard to remember that such brilliant artists as Mercedes Sosa, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Facundo Cabral, all who embraced the indigenous roots and incorporated it with their European influences, came from Argentina.

The Future Sounds of Buenos Aires doesn’t hide its European roots. Yet the latest roster from the ZZK label shows more of their indigenous leanings and immigrant roots. Cumbia Viera, a street Cumbia coming from the barrios of Buenos Aires via the Ecuador and Peru, still lay heavy on the ZZK roster, but now those rhythms are mixed with native flutes from the Andean mountains and folk instrumentation from Bolivia and Venezuela. The mixture of Argentine folklore with Cumbia, Glitch and Dubstep, makes perfect sense. The experimentation from this release may comes at a cost to the dance floor, but in the end, it makes for a better listen. The chances that you will have The Future Sounds Of Buenos Aires stuck on repeat is far greater than finding the next Cumbia re-edit banger on SoundCloud, and more rewarding as well.